The Burnt House

“Have you ever seen a picture of her?”

Oliver shook his head no. Rottiger held up a finger and came back a few minutes later with a photograph of eight WestAir flight attendants. He pointed to a tall willowy blonde in the middle. “That’s her.”

Oliver whistled. “Beautiful woman.”

“Yes, she was. It’s amazing that she was so naive about men.”

“How so?”

“She grew up in a small town up north, with Bible parents in a Bible community.”

“She was religious?”

“No, she gave all that up. But she still carried that farm-girl innocence. Her faith in her husband defied credulity. It took her catching him in the act for it to finally sink in what a shit he was. Even then, she agreed to therapy and mediation.”

“How was that working out?”

“Not well.” He turned to Oliver. “You don’t think she was on flight 1324, do you? You think that bastard did her in and blamed it on the flight.”

Oliver scratched his cheek. “Right now I’m just getting information, sir. And when you’re doing that, you’ve got to keep an open mind. What do you think?”

“Put it this way. The condo they were living in was in her name. So was the bank account, the car, the furniture, and just about everything of value that they owned. After catching him red-handed, Roseanne started talking about divorce. Poor little Ivan. Now how was he going to pay his lap dancers if he had to make rent and car payments, too?”

“Lap dancers?”

“Ever heard of Leather and Lace?”

Oliver faked naïveté.

“It’s a ‘gentleman’s’ club.” Rottiger made quotes with his fingers. “I have a good friend who works there as an exotic dancer.” When the man saw Oliver’s facial expression, he said, “It’s not like you think. She’s only doing it for the money.”

“That’s usually why girls lap dance,” Oliver said. “Anyway, what about her?”

“She met Rosie and Ivan at one of my famous patio parties.” A look of disgust washed over his face. “When Roseanne wasn’t looking, Ivan came on to her.”

“Does your lap-dancer friend have a name?”

“She does but I’m not comfortable giving it to you, right now. Especially after what happened with Ivan. I work very hard at putting my parties together. I don’t need idiots like Ivan making my friends feel uncomfortable. But there’s a punch line to this.”

“Go on.”

“Two weeks later Ivan shows up at Leather and Lace, stuffing twenties into my friend’s thong.”

“And did the relationship between the two of them … uh, improve?”

“That isn’t the point!” Rottiger bristled. “The point is he was spending lots of money on his bad habits. Roseanne’s money, no doubt. She finally had enough!”

“So Roseanne was contemplating divorce.”

“Yes. Finally.”

“And where was Roseanne living while she thought about divorce?”

“In her condo.”

“And Ivan? Where was he living?”

“They were still living together, but I think she was about to kick him out. She told me if anyone was going to temporarily move out, it was going to be him.”

“Because the condo was in her name.”

“Exactly.”

“Didn’t her husband have a job?”

“Some kind of low-level job in finance. I know they were living off Roseanne’s money as a flight attendant because Rosie complained about it.”

Oliver thought that it would be helpful to get into Roseanne’s bank accounts to see whose signatures were on the household expense checks. Maybe Ivan was skimming money from his wife’s bank account and that was the last straw. So far, the only thing working against Ivan the Terrible was bad behavior. And if that was a crime, Oliver was in deep, deep shit.

Rottiger said, “You know that the bastard is going to get a lot of insurance money now that Rosie’s dead. She had a life insurance policy from the company, and on top of that, I’m sure he’ll get a settlement from the airline. She was worth a lot more to him dead than alive.”

Oliver said, “I know that, but I can’t arrest Ivan for getting a windfall from his dead wife. What I need to know as a homicide detective is simply this: Was Roseanne Dresden on that plane or not?”

“I don’t know,” Rottiger said, “and that’s the truth.”

Oliver checked his watch. He had just enough time to clean up and make it to the restaurant. He set his wineglass down on the sleek bar and then handed his card to Rottiger. “You’ve been very helpful.”

“If you say so.”

“I know you can’t talk policy, but it’s my understanding that a flight attendant can hop an airline without a ticket if she’s on her way to work.”

“That’s certainly true.”

“We know that Roseanne wasn’t a flight attendant on 1324. We were told that she was on her way to San Jose to work. If you happen to stumble across anything that would definitely put Roseanne Dresden on flight 1324 or any paperwork that assigned her to work in San Jose, I’d love to know about it.”

Rottiger stuck the card in his jeans pocket. “I don’t see how that would happen. I try to mind my own business and do my job.”

“Same with me, Mr. Rottiger, but some people don’t want me to do my job. For instance, take your airline. My partner, Detective Dunn, and I asked WestAir about assignment sheets. We didn’t get anywhere and there was no one in the task force who could help us. We were told to fill out papers and just wait. Now, how am I to close a case if I’m being shined on like that?”

“It doesn’t surprise me. But you have to understand that WestAir is in a chaos right now.”

“Let me ask you one more thing.”

“Sure.”

“Is it possible for Roseanne to suddenly hitchhike on a plane without a job assignment and without a ticket?”

“It’s not procedure, but … if she made a sudden decision to escape from the bastard, and she had a good friend working the flight, maybe someone would bend a rule, let her hitch a ride, and clear it up later.”